Hygge Adventures: 059: North Carolina Part 2

Swansboro was a small but nice stop. I had the best sandwich on the whole trip so far on the night we got in and the next morning I had the best lox and bagel this side of Brooklyn, NYC. We had a short and uneventful ride up to Beaufort, N.C. on Saturday the 6^th. The first night we stayed at the town docks. After securing the boat I road Nancy’s folding bike over to a bike shop (a guy in his garage) to get some tune up work done on it that I didn’t have the patience to do. The repair guy was a character to say the least, but he gave me a ride back to the marina in his 1981 Corvette. I think that was my first ever Corvette ride! Later that night we had a “too expensive for the quality of the meal” dinner at a local restaurant.

On Sunday the 7^th, we moved Hygge to another marina for the week (nicer marina, courtesy car, free laundry, etc.). We did some boat cleaning and then the Murphy’s joined us to watch the Women’s NCAA Championship. That night we took the marina’s courtesy car over to an Italian Restaurant in Moorehead City and this this time the price to quality ratio was very favorable!

On Monday the 8^th, the Murphy’s left to head north while we stayed behind. I had arranged for an engine mechanic to look at engine coolant sensor issue (as in it was not working) and since he was coming out anyway, I wanted him to change the water intake impeller and fuel filters. Long story short, Hygge got fixed but the bill was stunning. It is kind of a scam. The engine controller tells you there is an issue, and gives a code, but there is no way to determine what the code means unless you are an authorized Volvo Penta service technician. He looked it up, it was a bad sensor, and replaced it in a few minutes. Unfortunately, the last time I had the impeller replaced, the marina didn’t use a Volvo Penta impeller which has a threaded female section to make it easy to get the impeller out with a male bolt; they used a generic one with no threaded section and it took him about an hour to remove the impeller. You also get charged travel time and mileage. Ouch.

After that was done, Nancy and I took the dingy over to Carrot Island to do some exploring and see the wild horses. We really scored by catching this video:

Carrot Island from the water:

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Not sure why I struck this pose, could be influenced by the Captain Cook book I am listening to:

After a short hike on the Island, we went into town and a generous lady gave us her two extra eclipse glasses and we watched the eclipse (70%) and then toured the Maritime Museum. The museum had a nice section on the Pirate Blackbeard who met his end in nearby Ocracoke. They had artifacts (cannons, plates, bells, etc.) from his flagship “The Queen Anne’s Revenge” which he ran aground. She was discovered in 1996 and lawsuits related to that are still pending (don’t find shipwrecks, it isn’t worth the legal hassles!).

https://ncmaritimemuseumbeaufort.com/

The following day, Nancy dropped me off to Budget Rental Car where I got a car to drive to Gainesville, GA for five days to play golf with high school friends. It was an eight-hour drive but went fast with audio books and podcasts. Great time seeing everyone. As for the golf, given that I hadn’t played since September, and that I used thirty-year-old borrowed clubs, I can’t complain.

The gang (Jeff, Tim N, TIm M, Me, Tom and Tim S):